Thank you!

Thank you for all the support you've given the Climbing Rose Young Adult line of The Wild Rose Press. Our stories are still available on The Wild Rose Press website, however, since we aren't publishing new stories, our blog is no longer active. We thank you again for the time you spent with us and invite you to visit our Climbing Rose bookstore.

We're only two (two!) days away from the release of The Stillburrow Crushby 2010 Debut Author Linda Kage.

Last Friday, Linda posted Chapter One on her blog. Here's a teaser in case you missed it:

He towered over me, a looming six feet two inches tall (according to the football roster) to my five feet seven. His helmet was off, hanging at his side, and he’d wrapped his fingers around the face guard. A cut across his right eyebrow sliced toward the corner of his eye. Tiny etches of blood filled the cracks and defined the spot where he’d have a healthy showing of crow’s feet someday. His wet black hair curled slightly down his forehead and around his ears. And his eyes were a blue so clear that if they’d been a lake, I could’ve seen right to their rocky bottoms.

Finally, he smiled…and I wanted to kick him. He had a row of bright white teeth with a bit of an overbite, and a dimple I could’ve fallen into.

I hated him for that grin. I mean, how dare he look at me with those blue orbs and display such a genuine smile? I didn’t want it. I didn’t want to step into line behind every other girl in school whose heart went into double-thump for this boy. He had no right to give me that busted-ice feeling.

(Now you know why we've been featuring crush stories all month :) Click here to read all of Chapter One.

And today, we're posting Chapter Two of Linda's fabulous book! Here's a teaser for Chapter Two:

“I read your article about the game.” He left the Mustang and neared me. “Good piece.”

“Thank you.” The words came out a hoarse, garbled mess because my throat had dried up, and I had to clear it. “Thanks,” I repeated.

“The only thing is…” He slowly began to circle me as he had the Mustang. “I don’t ever go by the name Lucas.” He looked up and stopped. I fell into a trance staring back at those hypnotic blues, and I couldn’t glance away.

I swallowed. He’d caught my barb. Everyone knew how much Luke detested his Christian name. And that’s exactly why I’d called him Lucas Carter in the article.

He started walking again, kicking a little at the gravel. “I figure there’s really only four times in my life I have to suffer through it. The day I was born since it’s on my birth certificate, the day I graduate, the day I get married, and the day of my funeral. So unless you’re planning on killing me off or marrying me, I’d really appreciate it if you’d just call me Luke.” He looked up again for my response. I could only nod.

He lifted one of his eyebrows. “You already knew that though, didn’t you? That I hate my name?”

And be sure to check out Linda's blog today when she explains how she got the idea for her wonderful story.

Linda is also guest blogging over at The Book Butterfly about cliques and how it can be difficult to step outside your group to find someone new (sort of like what happens in Linda's book!) Click over and leave a comment to be entered in a drawing to win an eBook copy of The Stillburrow Crush